Penny Lancaster is going through the menopause.
The 49-year-old TV presenter admitted she is having "horrific" symptoms but says her husband, rocker Sir Rod Stewart, 75, has been hugely supportive.
Penny told the Daily Mail newspaper: "I mean millions of women go through it, it’s nothing special but, God, it’s tough.
"I woke up sweating. Horrific. I actually thought, ‘Is this Covid-19?’ I had all the menopause symptoms – burning up, feeling wiped out, mood swings that are off the scale. I’ve wanted to scream. You don’t know if it’s just these times we are in. But eventually I had some tests. Yes, I’m in the menopause.’
"I had a period which lasted just two days in March, and then I woke up sweating. Then I found out I was in menopause.
"Rod’s been brilliant actually, but it’s hard for a man to understand, isn’t it? As well as the sweats, I have to keep explaining why I can become so cross all of a sudden."
Last year, Rod revealed he had beaten prostate cancer after a secret battle with the disease and Penny admitted it was "a terrible time" for their whole family.
She said: "It was awful, such a terrible time. It was the shock of it. Rod isn’t like one of those men who will never go to the doctor. He has more check-ups than anyone I know. And yet, when they picked it up, it wasn’t just contained in the prostate. It had come through – but, thankfully, not to the point where it spread throughout his body.
"He just charged through. He said, ‘Oh well, could be worse’. That’s very him. He knows he’s had a good life, and is very grateful for everything he has. His attitude was, ‘What will be, will be’."
And the pair chose not to tell their sons Alastair and Aiden about Rod’s diagnosis until he got the all-clear from doctors.
She explained: "It’s hard to go through that anyway, but when you are in the public eye there is that worry that you won’t be able to deal with it privately. We were worried about the boys finding out had it got in the news. We never told them. We never wanted to say ‘Daddy has cancer’ until we had dealt with it."